The Solo is a typical looking PMP device with a 3.5” 320x240 screen, video out, headphone jack, built in microphone, hard drive, and a media slot. So the engineers at dream’eo asked when and where do your use a PMP? The answer came back as on the road or going from place to place. Then the light came on…how about adding a GPS to the design so when people are traveling about they can find their way easier. Brilliant!

To make this a reality the Solo team added a docking port for expansion that allows you to plug in an external GPS puck. Neat add-on for a PMP device. It makes sense too, if I am going on a trip I will want to listen to music or watch a show, but I also might want to get directions along the way or find interesting points of interest.

The Solo is designed in an aluminum shell covered in a gorgeous gloss black and satin black finish wrapped around silver trim and buttons. It feels good in the hand and buttons are placed well for quick use.  A sturdy well built unit that really makes you feel like you just made a wise purchase.

As I mentioned earlier the hardware specs are fairly typical for this type of device.

HARDWARE SPECS
Processor 400MHz
Memory  32MB Flash ROM, 64MB SDRAM
Storage 20GB
Display TFT LCD, 3.5”, 16,7M colors, 320x240 pixel resolution, Touch Panel, variable brightness backlight
TV out  Video Support PAL and NTSC output
Audio out Internal Mono Speaker, Stereo Headset jack, Stereo Audio Out jack
Audio in  Internal Microphone
Input/Output USB Client 2.0, SD / Multimedia Card Slot, Infra-Red remote control
Real-Time-Clock Accurate Time Keeping; -20/+50 year date range
Battery Rechargeable and removable Slim Li-ion/polymer battery 1800mAh
Dimension,Weight 126 x 81 x 24 mm, 247 g

They support a variety of media formats all running under Microsoft Windows CE.Net 4.2.

SOFTWARE SPECS

Operating System Based on Microsoft Windows CE.Net 4.2
Language English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish
Video Playback WMV, Mpeg4 sp, ASF and Microsoft AVI format video at a bit rate up to 800 Kbps, DivX
Music Playback MP3, WMA and WAV format audio, Support for music ID3 tag and lyric display
Picture Viewing Support GIF (excluding Gif89a), JPEG, PNG, BMP format images Slide Show with background music and transition effect
Audio Recording Encoding voice (MIC in) @ Bit Rate: 64kbps, 128kbps, 192kbps
Transfer to PC High-speed USB 2.0, 480Mbps Max
Package Content Solo Unit, AC Adapter, Stereo Headphone, USB 2.0 Cable, AV Cable, Remote Control, Quick Start, Companion CD (Arcsoft Media Converter)

Optional GPS Navigation Kit Content
GPS Antenna, Car Mounting Bracket, Car lighter adapter
Horizon NavMate Navigation Software with European/American/Asian Maps depending on models and country

So with all this going for it the dream’eo Solo must be an “I have to have it” device right? Not exactly. While the unit is well equipped and the specs look great however the execution of the whole device leaves some room for improvement. The onscreen media interface tends to be sluggish at times and this I am sure is an issue with the now aging CE.Net 4.2, I would like to see a firmware refresh to the new 5.0 OS. The unit also has no video capture capability; lots of new PMP’s allow you to record video from an external source. I also had some issues with encoding things in MPEG4, the device seems sensitive to the codec’s and custom settings, I would recommend sticking with Windows Media Format when converting your movies for portable use.  Again this could be an easy fix with an updated software patch. This also bugs me, the unit will not charge off of USB…that’s just lame. What probably bothered me is that I just got done working another PMP device…one that records and I was charging it off of USB. So when I started using the Solo I kept running out of battery power. After a phone call to the Dremeo people, they confirmed that it only charges from the power plug and not USB.

So those are small gripes and they plague many if not all PMP’s to some degree however a major issue I had was with the GPS portion of the device. The maps and interface seemed like last generation leftovers. They use navigation software NaveMate from Horizon Navigation Inc. What was annoying was the “line art” type of maps used and the limited live GPS data on the screen like no current speed, or average trip time, etc. If I had never used other GPS devices like TomTom, Navigon, or Pharos I might not have a complaint here but the maps are just plain “plain”.  The unit is accurate and works well, I never got lost and that’s saying a lot as I tend to make plenty of detours. On occasion the unit was slow to recalculate when I skipped a voice guided turn. Additionally you can not play media while using the Solo for GPS. What a shame, it would have been great to play MP3’s through my car stereo while driving with the GPS.

That brings me to another sticky point I have. The Solo w/GPS sells for $799. The car kit is horrid. As a stand alone generic car kit its fine, but when bundled with an $800 GPS/PMP I would like to have liked to see a much better fit and finish. To start with you can not access the headphone jack when it is in the car kit. Also the power plug is on the left hand side of the unit so the cigarette lighter adapter cord has to go underneath the Solo and plug in. What does this matter you ask? Because the plug sticks way out and pulls on the unit. A right angle plug would have solved this issue. Arkon makes a variety of generic and custom device mounts and I happened to have one here in the lab. The random one I had laying around was a better fit than the one dream’eo provides.

It’s not all sour apples; like I said the device looks great, does what it’s advertised to do and is really a nice little PMP. Most of my complaints could be resolved with a firmware/software upgrade and a new car kit. One thing that can’t be solved by a firmware update is the lack of video input. If the device didn’t sell for $800 I might be less critical on some of the features, but for that price I expect top notch fit and finish, functionality, and performance.

I look forward to their next upgrade to the Solo, the unit has a lot of potential and simply looks and feels great. 

3 out 5 stars

—Bill Landon
Senior Techonlogy Editor

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